Sermon 261

SERMO 261

SERMON GIVEN AT CARTHAGE IN THE BASILICA OF FAUSTUS
Fortieth day of the Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ

Let us ascend with Christ, having hearts uplifted.

The resurrection of the Lord, our hope; the ascension of the Lord, our glorification. For today we celebrate the solemnities of the Ascension. Therefore, if rightly, if faithfully, if devoutly, if holily, if piously we celebrate the ascension of the Lord, let us ascend with Him, and lift up our hearts. But let us not be puffed up while ascending, for we should have our hearts lifted up, but to the Lord. For to have the heart lifted up but not to the Lord is called pride; but to have the heart lifted up to the Lord is called refuge. To Him indeed we say who ascended: "Lord, you have been our refuge." For He rose again to give us hope, because what dies rises again; so that we would not despair by dying, and would not think our whole life is ended by death. For we were anxious about the very soul, and He, by rising again, gave us assurance even concerning the flesh. Therefore, He ascended, who? He who descended. He descended to heal you; He ascended to lift you up. You will fall if you lift yourself up; you will remain if He lifts you up. Therefore, lift up your heart, but to the Lord, it is a refuge; lift up your heart, but not to the Lord, it is pride. Let us therefore say to Him who rises: "For You are, Lord, my hope," and to Him who ascends: "You have made the Most High your refuge." For how shall we be proud, having our hearts lifted up to Him, who for our sake was made humble, lest we remain proud?

Piety seeks by believing, vanity by disputing.

God Christ, this always: it will never cease, because it never began. For if by His grace something begins, which never ceases; how will He cease, who never began? What is it that begins, and will never cease? Our immortality will have a beginning, it will have no end. For we no longer have what, when we begin to have, we will not lose. Therefore always God Christ. And what kind of God? Do you ask what kind? Equal to the Father. Therefore do not seek quality in eternity, but happiness. What kind of God is Christ, understand if you can. Behold, I say, I will not deceive you. Do you ask what kind of God Christ is? Listen to me, rather listen with me; let us listen together, let us learn together. For not because I speak and you listen, therefore I do not listen with you. Do you therefore ask, when you hear: Christ is God, what kind of God is Christ? Listen with me: I do not say, listen to me, but listen with me. For in this school we are all fellow students: heaven is the chair of our teacher. Thus, listen to what kind of God Christ is. In the beginning was the Word. Where? And the Word was with God. But every day we are accustomed to hearing words. Do not think so, as you are accustomed to hearing: the Word was God, what kind I seek. For behold, now I believe in God: but what kind of God He is, I seek. Seek His face always. Let no one fail in seeking, but let him progress. The seeker progresses, if piety seeks, not vanity. How does piety seek, how does vanity? Piety seeks by believing, vanity by disputing. For if you wish to dispute with me, and say to me: Which God do you worship? what kind of God do you worship? show me what you worship, I will answer: Even if there is something I can show, there is not one to whom I can show it.

Paul's modesty in the knowledge of God.

Nor do I dare to say that I have already taken what you seek. For I enter, as much as I can, after the footsteps of that great athlete of Christ, namely the apostle Paul, who says: Brothers, I do not consider myself as having taken hold of it. I myself. I, what is that, and myself? I who have labored more than all of them? I know, Apostle, how you say: I. It is expression, not elation. Do you wish to hear how he says: I? When he said: I have labored more than all of them, he took the ‘I’ upon himself. More, he says, I have labored than all of them. And as if we would say to him: Who? and he to us: Not I, but the grace of God with me. He, therefore, with whom was the grace of God in such abundance that, called later, he labored more than the predecessors, yet says: Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. There ‘I,’ where it is not taken hold of. Truly, it is human infirmity not to take hold of it. But when he was lifted up to the third heaven, and heard ineffable words that it is not permitted for man to speak, he did not say: I. But what did he say? I know a man fourteen years ago. I know a man: and he himself was the man who spoke, and what was done in him, he made as if it were another, and therefore did not falter. Therefore, do not contend, do not argue, demanding from me what kind of god I worship. For it is not an idol, and I extend a finger, and say to you: Behold the God whom I worship; nor is it some constellation, nor some star, nor the sun, nor the moon; and I extend my finger to heaven, and say: Behold what I worship. There is not where the finger can be extended, but there is where the mind can be extended. Behold him who does not comprehend, and yet seeks, follows, pants, sighs, desires; behold him, what he aims at, see to his God, whether he extends a finger, or truly the mind. What does he say? I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing, forgetting what lies behind, stretching out to what lies ahead, I follow according to the intention to the prize of the heavenly calling of God in Christ Jesus. I follow, he says, I walk, he says, I am on the way. Follow, if you can: let us come together to the homeland, where you will not ask me, nor I you. Therefore, now let us seek by believing together, that we may rejoice together by seeing later.

To cleanse the heart so that God may be seen.

For who has shown you what kind of God Christ is? Behold what He deigned to say through His servant, let Him also say through this servant of His, to my fellow servants, His servants. It was said to you: In the beginning was the Word. You asked where it was, it was answered: The Word was with God. And lest you disdain the words from the custom of human speech, you heard: The Word was God. Do you still ask what kind of God? All things were made through Him. Love Him: whatever you love is from Him. Let us not love the creature, neglecting the Creator; but let us attend to the creature and praise the Creator. I cannot show you my God: I show what He made, I recall what He made. All things were made through Him. He made new things not being new; He made temporal things being eternal; He made changeable things, who does not know change. Examine what is made, praise the Maker: believe, so that you may be cleansed. Do you want to see? You want a good thing, a great thing; I urge you to want it. Do you want to see? Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Therefore, first think about purifying your heart: have this business, devote yourself to this, persist in this work. What you want to see is pure, what you want to see with is impure. You imagine God like some immense or many-fold light of these eyes, you enlarge the spaces as much as you wish: you do not set an end where you do not wish, you set it where you wish. These are fantasies of your heart, this is the impurity of your heart. Remove it, cast it away. If dirt falls into your eye, and you want me to show you the light; first your eye would seek a cleaner. So much impurity is in your heart; there, avarice is not a small impurity. You amass what you will not take with you. Do you not know that as you amass, you are dragging mud to your heart? From where, then, will you see what you seek?

You have filled your ark and broken your conscience.

You say to me: Show me your God. I say to you: Pay a little attention to your heart. Show me, you say, your God. Pay, I say, a little attention to your heart. Whatever you see there that displeases God, remove it. God wants to come to you. Listen to the Lord Christ himself: "My Father and I will come to him, and we will make our abode with him." Behold what God promises. Therefore, if I promised to come into your house, you would clean it; God wants to come into your heart, and you are lazy in cleaning His house? He does not love to dwell with greed, with an unclean and insatiable woman, whom you served at her command, and you sought to see God. What have you done that God commanded? What have you not done that greed commanded? What have you done that God commanded? I show what dwells in your heart, that you wish to see God. For indeed I had said: There is something to show, but to whom it is not. What God commanded, what have you done? What greed commanded, what have you delayed? God commanded that you clothe the naked, you trembled; greed commanded that you strip the clothed, you went mad. If you had done what God commanded, what shall I say to you, you would have this and that? You would have God himself. If you had done what God commanded, you would have God. You did what greed commanded; what do you have? I know, you will say to me: I have whatever I stole. Therefore, by taking away you have. Do you have something with you, who lost yourself? I have, you say. Where, where, I ask you? Surely either in the room, or in the little sack, or in the chest: I do not wish to say more. Wherever you have it, surely you do not have it with you now. Surely now you think you have it in the chest; perhaps it perished, and you do not know; perhaps when you return, you will not find what you left. I seek your heart: there, what you have, I inquire. Behold you have filled your chest, and broken your conscience. See it full, learn to be full: The Lord gave, the Lord took away; as it pleased the Lord, so it was done; blessed be the name of the Lord. Surely he had lost all. Therefore, where did he bring these gems of praise to the Lord?

Darkness is the work of evil.

Therefore, cleanse your heart as much as you can; do this, work on this. And ask, supplicate, humble yourself so that He may cleanse and dwell there. You do not understand: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God: this was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him, nothing was made. What was made in Him was life, and that life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not comprehended it. Behold why you do not understand: The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not comprehended it. What are the darknesses but evil deeds? What are the darknesses but evil desires, pride, greed, ambition, envy? All these are darknesses: therefore, you do not comprehend. For the light shines in the darkness; but there must be someone to comprehend it.

Christ himself is both the way you go and the destination you go to.

Therefore see, lest perhaps you can somehow grasp this: The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. Through the man Christ you reach the God Christ. God is too great for you: but God became man. That which was far from you, was made near to you through the man. Where you remain, is God: the way which you go, is man. The same Christ is both the way and the destination. Therefore that same Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. He took on what he was not, without losing what he was. He appeared as man, and was hidden as God. Man was killed, and God was offended: but man rose again, and God was found. Think, therefore, how much he did as God, and how much he suffered as man. He was killed, but not in divinity: it was Christ himself who was killed. For they are not two, God and man; so that we do not create or understand the Trinity, but a Quaternity. Man truly man, and God truly God; but the whole Christ is both man and God: thus this whole Christ is man and God. Just as you are a body and soul; likewise the whole Christ is man and God. Therefore whole Christ, [is] flesh, soul, and God. The same [one] says some things which pertain to God; some things which pertain to soul; some things which pertain to flesh: it all pertains to Christ. What does he say as God? As the Father has life in himself, so he has given the Son to have life in himself. Whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. I and the Father are one. What does Christ say according to his soul? My soul is sorrowful unto death. What does Christ say according to his flesh? Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Touch and see, because a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see me have. These are the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

In Christ, you have God and neighbor.

Certainly the whole law hangs on two commandments: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. In Christ you have everything. Do you want to love your God? You have Him in Christ: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Do you want to love your neighbor? You have Him in Christ: The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.

Without sin we do not live here.

May He cleanse us by His grace: may He cleanse us by His help and consolations. My brothers, through Him and in Him, I implore you, to abound in good works, in mercy, goodness, and kindness. Quickly forgive what is sinned against you. Let no one hold anger against another, lest he hinder his prayer to God. For all these things, since we are in this world, for even if we make progress, even if we live justly, we do not live without sin here. For sins are not only those which are called crimes, adulteries, fornications, sacrileges, thefts, rapines, false testimonies; not only those are sins. To pay attention to something which you should not have, is a sin; to listen to something willingly, which shouldn't have been heard, is a sin; to think something which shouldn't have been thought, is a sin.

Daily remedies against sins.

But our Lord has given, after that bath of regeneration, other daily remedies. Our daily cleansing, the Lord's Prayer. Let us say, and let us say truly, that this too is an alms: Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. Give alms, and all things are clean for you. Remember, brothers, what he will say to those standing on the right. He will not say: you have done this and that great thing; but: I was hungry, and you gave me food. To those standing on the left, he will not say: you have done this and that evil; but: I was hungry, and you did not give me food. Those on account of alms, into eternal life: those because of sterility, into eternal fire. Now choose either the right or the left. For I ask you, what hope of salvation can a lazy person have in remedies, who is frequent in diseases? But the diseases are small. Gather them, and they press down. The sins I have are smaller. Are they not many? For how are they smaller, which weigh down, overwhelm? What is smaller than drops of rain? Rivers are filled. What is smaller than grains of wheat? Granaries are filled. You notice that they are smaller, and do not notice that they are many. You know how to notice: count them, if you can. But plainly, God has given a daily remedy.

Conclusion.

Great is the mercy of Him who ascended on high and captured captivity. What is: captured captivity? He killed death. Captivity is captured: death is dead. So what? Did He who ascended on high and captured captivity do only this? So did He abandon us? Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Therefore, consider this: He gave gifts to men. Open the bosom of piety, receive the gift of happiness.